We will be closing up shop, Sen Guesthouse Matsuyama mid May and will be opening a new place, Sen Shodo Shima early July.Though this seems kinda sudden, we have actually been looking at this move for a while and finally found a place that we both love and will make an awesome accommodation.

While the spring festival was happening in Dogo, we had a nabe party in the guesthouse. It was the perfect opportunity for our foreign guests to discover this great Japanese dish! Symbol of family, friends or colleagues gathering in Japan, you won’t find it in any restaurant.

The ferry from Wellington to Picton was by far, the nicest ferry I have ever been on- live music, microbrew (obsessed), nice food, crazy views from multiple rooms. The scenery was also spectacular traveling through the various sounds and cliffs. After changing to a bus, we ended up Nelson mid-day and checked into, what was later decided, our favorite guesthouse on the trip, Tramper’s rest.

Well, physically it exists, but at times it takes a bit of convincing to believe that what you are looking at is indeed a tangible place. Since all things Peter Jackson and LOTR, a lot of attention has been played to this formally little visited island nation 2000 kms east of Australia; and the tourists have indeed come.

Returning to south west Europe for us is never hard. Not sure if it is the richness of the food, the onslaught of the ridiculously cheap wine, the beautiful landscapes or the ancientness of it’s villages, but it’s fast becoming a tradition of ours to spend our June walking a portion of the Camino de Santiago in this corner of the world. This June was no different as we set out on the Camino Portuguese to both spread the good word of Ohenro and to get a little bit of pilgrimage in us ourselves. 360km, 12 full days of walking, whiningwineing to the western most tip of continental Europe, Finisterre.

Repeater guest, Kochi stalwart and all around good guy, Bear, hosted a really great live event at the guesthouse last weekend, May 10th. His collection of ceramics really blew everyone away and he ended up selling quite a few pieces. We also had the awesome deal where if you bought a cup, you received a 15% discount on all drinks for the night-as you would expect, many people took us up on the offer.

Nori and I just got back from a really nice 5-day break where we went to Sapporo, Kiroro resort and Osaka. Since coming to Japan 5 years ago, I’ve always wanted to go experience Hokkaido, both in the winter and in the summer. And though the summer trip will have to wait for another day, the winter version just had its first installment.